Archives

Family Band are a salve to a nerve-frayed city where everybody climbs their steps two at a time. Indeed, the Brooklyn back yard where the latest Backyard Brunch Sessions was held could as well have been miles from the city; in the presence of Family Band, we were transfixed, and transported. The components of the band’s sound are vocalist/guitarist Kim Krans, whose dusky, haunting vocals give the songs their emotional core; her husband, guitarist/pedal bassist Jonny Ollsin, and Scott Hirsch, on pedal steel. If you noticed that there was no drummer in that mix, that’s right – the band relies on minimal percussion beyond a tambourine tapped lightly by Krans’ feet, or Krans’ handheld “golden eggs”. The result gives their songs a hushed, intense and slightly mournful quality; Ollsin only half-jokingly called it “death prom”. But maybe that’s because New Yorkers associate a slowed pace with sadness; Krans and Ollsin write most of their songs up in the Catskills, where they met, and if you look at it that way, there is a pastoral quality to these songs as well. Given how scorching hot and humid it was outside in Brooklyn on this otherwise gorgeous day, many of us wished we were in those mountains, too (even if the show did come with brunch courtesy of Ollsin, bloody marys courtesy of McClure’s Pickles, and Adirondack Creamery ice cream).
The band, who have toured recently with both Phosphorescent and Warpaint, are working on a new record that they hope to release later this year. Several of these songs are new ones that will appear on it, and if the rest of the record is as outstanding as songs like “Again” and “Forgive the Rest”, it will be a great one. This show was also a first for Backyard Brunch shows in that it was the first fully electric performance that has been hosted, and that fit Family Band’s sound perfectly, as it relies much more heavily on the electric pedal bass to carry the songs. If Krans, Ollsin and Hirsch were suffering from heat (which they had to be) it didn’t show in a spot-on performance of these soothing, thought-provoking songs. For this half hour, at least, we could forget the rush, live in the moment, and enjoy.

I recorded this set with AKG large-diaphragm microphones miking the band’s amplifiers, using Schoeps supercardiods as very high-end vocal mics. The results are outstanding. Enjoy!

Stream “Forgive the Rest”:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Stream “Hatred”:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.